The issues this conference is considering - social welfare,
health, living standards, generate a wide range of views, as these quotations
illustrate

New Zealanders' life expectancy, education and living standards have slipped
compared to other countries. (At 20th) compared with 19th last year, the ranking
is the same as 1990, but seven places down from 1975.

United Nations 2003 Human Development
Report in the Dominion Post 9 July

How much responsibility people should take for their own lives
and well being will one of the defining political issues of the decade, a
conference on social welfare policy * in Wellington heard today.

The Conference's opening speaker, social commentator, John Bishop, said that
what the state could or should do for its citizens and what obligations and
responsibilities this placed on citizens was an emerging theme in a number of
public issues.

A paper for the 2nd Annual Developing, Managing &
Measuring Outcomes-Based Policy in the Public Sector Conference John
BishopSocial Commentator Wellington31st March and 1st April 2004

Introduction
Ensuring any kind of policies mean something throughout the organisation is
always a challenge for senior management teams and particularly for Chief
Executives and their communications people.

New Zealand records a balance of payments surplus of $1 million for the year
ending March 1973.

"Unfortunately that is the last time New Zealand paid its way in the world,
we have had 30 years of living beyond our earnings, and what the kiwi dollar
buys now is only a bit more than half of what it bought in 1973. That's the
measure of our decline as a nation relative to the rest of the world."